Nobody's home
by yaoiipassion
Summary: Once your two best friends are gone forever, how can you go on living? How can you return home, when there's nobody home? A tribute to Sakura Haruno, hope you like it!


**A/N: Hi! Well, I decided to write this finally, i couldn't decide between writing it or not, but in the end i decided to do so cuz I really like Sakura and I think she deserves this tribute. I know she was annoying and useless at the beginning, but c'mon, not everybody can be a superhero, and she was just a common girl who had in her ninja team the last Uchiha (one of the most powerful clans in Konoha) and the Nine tailed fox Jinchuuriki, not to mention her sensei was the strongest of them all, how was she supposed to even be compared to them!**

**But I think she really worked to become someone and build her own strenght (quite literally xD) I mean, I think she's now one of the strongest kunoichi in Konoha, only being surpassed by Tsunade, Kurenai, Anko and Shizune, and most probably Hinata, and I really admir her work to become stronger. I think this isn't a "master piece", but I wanted to make this little tribute anyway to this awesome pink-haired kunoichi :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Naruto Shippuden, they all belong to their respective owners, please don't sue me I have no money! :)**

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**_Nobody's home_**

The pinkette walked slowly through the dark, gloomy, and very creepy you may add, corridors of Konoha's hospital. Her steps were slow, making the wooden floor below her feet make a little crack sound every time they entered in contact with it.

She wasn't afraid, she couldn't be afraid of anything else after what she had lived. Yet, any other person in that situation would have completely freaked out if they, like her, now heard some slower footsteps coming from behind.

Turning her back slowly, she found out it was...

"Shizune-san" she recognized her superior, the woman in charge of the whole hospital, accompanied by her loyal little pig, Ton-ton.

"Sakura, your shift tonight has ended" Shizune informed to her with a warm smile. "Go home and get some rest"

The young woman nodded and gave her another smile.

Haruno Sakura worked part-time in the hospital, since she was one of the best medical nin in the whole village. She had been train by the most powerful medical nin of all, the only female member of the Legendary Sannins and former Hokage, Senju Tsunade.

Yes, you heard right, _former_ Hokage. During the Fourth Shinobi War, Tsunade protagonized one of the biggest fights of the war when she faced up against Yakushi Kabuto, a battle that three years before had started and never concluded. Tsunade sacrificed herself in order to find a way of finish Kabuto's techinique, which brought life back into the dead, and resolved it by killing him, which actually did the trick and allowed her beloved Dan to rest in peace. However, in his last breath, Kabuto managed to inject lethal poison into Tsunade's veins. Sakura reached the place, and tried by all means to extract the poison from her body, just like she had done in the case of Kankuro in the past, but this poison had been to quick, and her teacher died in her arms.

Finally getting rid of her nurse uniform and back into her usual civilian clothing, the kunoichi left the hospital and walked alone under the star-filled sky of Konoha.

"Oh, Sakura" Ino Yamanaka greeted her.

Lost in her thoughts, she hadn't even noticed that she had already reached the Yamanaka Flower Shop. The attractive, blue-eyed blonde behind the counter looked at her and smiled.

"What are you and that huge forehead of yours doing here?" Ino teased her.

"I just came to buy some flowers, that's all" the Haruno answered with a shy smile.

Ino looked at her confused. It wasn't common of her friend not to be right back at her wit another insult and then they would argue for hours until they eventually forgot what they were arguing about. She wondered what was bugging her, as she came out of the counter to look at Sakura wonder around the different kind of flowers on the shop.

"These ones are quite pretty" Sakura whispered, while staring at a bunch of white ones.

"Tsubaki" Ino revealed. "Those are white tsubaki. They stand for..."

"For what?"

"Ever-lasting friendship"

"Oh" Sakura sighed. "Then I guess I'm taking these."

"How many?" Ino asked, walking towards the flowers.

"Two big bouquets will be fine" Sakura said with a smile,seeing Ino pull out a bunch of flowers. "Yeah, I think that should be enough"

Ino got the tsubaki and started wrapping them into bouquets, as Sakura watched her work silently.

"It's a year" Sakura mumbled as Ino finished the first bouquet.

"What?"

"As from today... a year has passed... since the final battle... since _their_ final battle"

The Yamanaka's eyes widened. Now she understood it. So that was what was going on, how could she foget it?

An entire year had now passed since the Fourth Shinobi War's end, an entire year since... since their...

"Well, there you go. Oh, don't worry about the money" She quickly said as she saw Sakura take out her wallet. "This one's on the house, okay?"

"Ino... thanks"

"Don't worry. Now, you better get going, it's getting pretty late"

"You're right... good night"

She said goodbye to Ino and left the flower shop.

After walking for a while, she encountered her destiny. Konoha's graveyard, the creepiest place in the whole village, yet here she was, entering there, absolutely fearless and doubtless.

The Haruno opened the iron gates of the graveyard and after walking a couple of feets she met him, the silver-haired masked man who was walking towards her with what seemed to be a smile, it was difficult to tell due to his weird mask.

"Hello, Sakura" he greeted her warmly.

"Good night, Kakashi-sensei" she saluted her mentor. "Or should I call you Hokage-sama now? Many people are doing so nowadays"

"Yeah, I know" Kakashi admitted. "But I'd preffer if you still called me sensei and not Hokage, Sakura"

A moment of awkward silence came now, as the two of them stared at each other, waiting for the other to say something, but nothing seemed to come to their minds, they were speechless for some seconds.

Finally, the Hatake decided to talk after he observed the flowers in her hands.

"You came to visit too?" he asked, pointing at the bouquets.

"Yes, and I see you came to visit them. I'm glad"

"Well, I was just leaving. I also took some time to visit him"

Sakura looked towards where Kakashi was now looking at and saw that grave not too far away. She smiled.

"I think I'll pay him a visit too"

"I think you should. He was, after all, a part of Team Seven" Kakashi agreed. "Good night, Sakura"

"Good night, Kakashi-sensei"

After parting ways with her sensei, Sakura walked towards the grave, separating some flowers from the first bouquet and arranging them into an extra little one which she kindly deposited on front of the grave.

"I really miss you, Sai" Sakura whispered. "No one else can realize my smiles are fake anymore. You were the expert in them, only you could tell..."

Many could say he was shy, timid, weak, even call him a traitor, one of "Danzou's dogs", but they were all wrong. Sai was one of the bravest men she had and would ever meet.

When they finally had Madara's hideout location, he was one of the first to arrive. Tsunade was left in charge of anihilating Kabuto, while Sai was supposed to take Mitarashi Anko, who had been abducted and deadly injured by Kabuto, away from there to be attended by a medical nin, and he should then wait for backup. Naruto, Sakura, they were heading that way, Sai knew that.

Yet, he did what was unthinkable of him. He disobeyed his superior. He fought Kabuto, making Tsunade heal Anko's wounds while he distracted the enemy. Once Anko was put out of danger, then Tsunade joined the fight. Sai took Anko out of the hideout and left her away from the place, so she wouldn't be harmed.

But instead of waiting for Naruto and Sakura, Sai returned to help Tsunade. But she didn't need help in the fight, she was doing great, no for nothing she was the Hokage. But once she defeated Kabuto, she got poisoned. Sai tried to think of some way to cure her, but before he could do or think of anything to help her, _he_ appeared.

And Sai had faced him.

"It's just like Kakashi-sensei said..." Sakura said. "You were a part of Team Seven too. You were my friend, too"

She left the little white bouquet in front of the grave, which only read "Sai", since he had never revealed his name or surname, just that "fake" name he was given on his first mission on Team Kakashi.

Afterwards, he pulled some other few flowers out of the second bouquet, so the two bouquets remained exactly identical. With these extra flowers, she built another tiny bouquet which she left in another grave not too far away.

"These are for you, Tsunade-sama" Sakura whispered, walking away from her master's grave, which was placed, as Tsunade had indicated with her final words, between Dan and Jiraiya, the two men she had loved the most in all her life.

Eventually, she got to the two graves which were a little separated from the rest. They were actually big, bigger than an other in the whole graveyard.

Sakura certainly didn't expect to see a person standing there, in front of one of the graves, sorowfully looking at it. And she didn't expect to actually know this individual.

"Hinata?" Sakura asked, although she was completely certain it was her.

"Sa... Sakura-san" the new leader of the Hyuuga clan recognized her.

"What are you doing here?"

"I... I came to visit my fathers' grave..."

"Oh..."

Sakura then remembered that Hiashi Hyuuga, Hinata's father, died on the war after being forced to battle his twin brother Hizashi, who had been brought back to life by Kabuto. Since then, Hinata had been chosen as the new clan's leader after beating her younger sister Hanabi, and as leader she made important reforms to start building friendship ties between the Bouke and the Souke, starting with her relationship with her cousin Neji.

"And... since I was already here... I decided to... to visit..."

"It's ok" Sakura said with a small smile. "I'm here to visit too"

"Well... I should probably go then... Neji nii-san is waiting for me... and it seems rain is coming... good night, Sakura-san"

"Good night, Hinata"

The Haruno watched as the blue-haired kunoichi walked away, she had noticed her glazed eyes about to burst into tears. Then she lifted her head upwards, looking at the full moon above her. Huge, black clouds were slowly taking over the sky, rain was coming, just as Hinata had stated.

She knew Hinata had suffered a lot, and she was still suffering. She had never gotten any answer, and intrigue must still be killing her, deep inside herself she probably still wanted to know if her feelings, those feelings she had confessed to him before the war started would have been corresponded, if _he_ felt the same way as her. Even if he didn't, it would probably still be better if she had heard it from his mouth, whether yes or no would have been better than leaving her with an unanswered question. It was most probably painful.

"Well, we're finally alone" Sakura sighed, getting nearer the graves.

The pinkette took both bouquets and delicately placed them on the ground.

"I took some from your bunch, Naruto, I know, but I took some others from Sasuke's bouquet too, that way you're even" She smiled as a tiny tear crossed her face. "That way you won't fight"

"It's Team Seven forever, guys" and with these words, she turned around and started slowly walking away.

But it didn't take her many steps to freeze on her tracks. The storm had started, and as she looked upwards, rain started mixing with the tears that fell from her eyes.

Sakura fell on her knees, her crying intensified.

"It's so hard!" she cried. "It's so hard to put a smile, to pretend i'm ok so I don't worry the rest, to try to be strong while I'm still so weak! I'm still weak and annoying, and I can't stop crying! I'm sorry, Naruto, Sasuke-kun, I'm really sorry, but I can't, I miss you so much!"

She couldn't stop it, no matter how strong her desire was, she couldn't stop her tears for falling, just like she couldn't stop the rain from falling.

Then she felt it. As she cried, she felt a force on her shoulders, on both of them.

She swiftly turned around, but she saw no one. Still, she had definitively felt two warm hands, one on each of her shoulders, giving her warmth in that cold, rainy night.

Still crying, Sakura got up and looked as the rain fell straight onto her face. She knew she should get home, but then again, what was her home? Was her home that lonely, empty apartment, where she spent her nights looking at the night sky and crying while staring at her old Team Seven picture, which they had taken as gennins?

No, there was nobody at that home. The reason was, her true home was there, her true home where those two people buried underground. And without them... she knew there was nobody at home for her... without them... deep inside... she was empty... she was alone.

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**A/N: I may continue it (in a second fanfic, a long-fic of course), or i may let it off as a one-shot, what do you think? please let me know in your reviews!**

**BYE!**


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